July 5th, 2005 . . . I climbed out of the water from the second dive, and my instructor shook my hand, and told me I was a certified diver.
It's been an amazing ten years. I've done somewhere around 1300 dives, in most of the major regions where people go diving. Australia, Indonesia, the South Pacific, the Caribbean, the Philippines, and up and down the Pacific North American coast. I've been fortunate enough to see a great many amazing things, from a humpback whale off Lanai, to the giant mantas in the Socorros, to the unbelievable profusion of beautiful and bizarre nudibranchs that enliven almost all dive sites. I've had training from a variety of organizations and people, which has been an interesting (and sometimes very frustrating!) process. I've even gotten to go somewhere that no one else had ever been before, and yes, I have a line arrow at the end of a previously unexplored passage, which likely no one will ever dive again
And ScubaBoard has been with me for almost all of it. I was sent here by a mentor not long after I learned to dive. I met NW Grateful Diver here, and he's a large part of the reason I still dive, and haven't killed myself doing it. I found out about DIR here (I miss Uncle Pug) and it was a perfect fit for me. I met a lot of people here who I later got to know in person, who have enriched my diving and my life: Mo2vation, HBDiveGirl, KMD, RLee, Bismarck (now GShockey). I've gotten advice on dive ops and lodging (thank you, Red Hat Mama!). I've learned about diving and marine life (thank you, Doc Intrepid, Doppler, and people like Max Bottomtime).
It's been a great ten years, and I'm looking forward to what the next decade brings, in travel, diving, discoveries, and people!
Then:
Now:
It's been an amazing ten years. I've done somewhere around 1300 dives, in most of the major regions where people go diving. Australia, Indonesia, the South Pacific, the Caribbean, the Philippines, and up and down the Pacific North American coast. I've been fortunate enough to see a great many amazing things, from a humpback whale off Lanai, to the giant mantas in the Socorros, to the unbelievable profusion of beautiful and bizarre nudibranchs that enliven almost all dive sites. I've had training from a variety of organizations and people, which has been an interesting (and sometimes very frustrating!) process. I've even gotten to go somewhere that no one else had ever been before, and yes, I have a line arrow at the end of a previously unexplored passage, which likely no one will ever dive again
And ScubaBoard has been with me for almost all of it. I was sent here by a mentor not long after I learned to dive. I met NW Grateful Diver here, and he's a large part of the reason I still dive, and haven't killed myself doing it. I found out about DIR here (I miss Uncle Pug) and it was a perfect fit for me. I met a lot of people here who I later got to know in person, who have enriched my diving and my life: Mo2vation, HBDiveGirl, KMD, RLee, Bismarck (now GShockey). I've gotten advice on dive ops and lodging (thank you, Red Hat Mama!). I've learned about diving and marine life (thank you, Doc Intrepid, Doppler, and people like Max Bottomtime).
It's been a great ten years, and I'm looking forward to what the next decade brings, in travel, diving, discoveries, and people!
Then:
Now:
